Cetatea Alba Offensive

The Cetatea Alba Offensive (30 June-4 July 1944) was an offensive operation of World War II carried out by the Soviet Union against the Axis Powers in northern Romania (located in present-day Ukraine). The Soviets succeeded in securing Cetatea Alba along the Black Sea coast, and they repelled several Axis counterattacks against their forces.

History
The Targu Neamt Offensive of late June 1944 led to the Soviet Union being able to invade Romania, hoping to pressure both Finland in the north and Romania in the south to leave the Axis Powers, disabling Nazi Germany's abilities to wage war against the Russians from three fronts. The Soviets launched a large assault on Cetatea Alba on the coast of Romania (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Odessa Oblast, Ukraine), facing an army of Axis troops under I.A. Antonescu and Ivan Kinov. Half of the Axis forces were Romanian and the rest German, Hungarian, and Bulgarian, and the jumbled Axis forces were unable to mount an adequate defense. The Axis forces were forced back, and two attempts by Antonescu to assault Cetatea Alba in a counterattack failed with heavy losses. The Soviets suffered a few more losses than the Axis, so Antonescu was able to present the battle as a pyrrhic victory for the Allies; this allowed him to withdraw further south as the Bucharest strategy was enacted.